Healthcare Technology Featured Article

Business analytics software and service provider SAS has launched a new product called ECR Analytics to enhance patient care among healthcare organizations, while at the same time reducing costs.

The SAS for ECR Analytics will offer healthcare providers, payers and accountable care organizations the ability to: accurately analyze incidences of care for at-risk patients; be flexible when negotiating and setting case rates; compare expected performances against actual performances; recognize avoidable care variations and complications, as well as determine costs associated with each; create transparency when developing achievable shared savings targets; and utilize bundled payments and new models of payment.

“In every industry – whether banking, financial services, retail or healthcare – understanding and optimizing financial risk and reward is a data-driven exercise,” Graham Hughes, chief medical officer for SAS Center for Health Analytics and Insights, said in a statement.

“The more data you have, and the better you analyze it, the less likely you are to set unrealistic targets for either quality or cost. SAS for ECR Analytics leverages state-of-the-art analytic tools to help ensure that organizations adopting value-based payment models have a clear understanding of episode-based performance in order to confidently predict and manage the financial risks and rewards associated with this new wave of incentive-driven, value-based contracting.”

The SAS for ECR Analytics encompasses concepts, such as bundled payments, set forth by the Prometheus Payment system from the Health Care Incentives Improvement Institute. New Jersey's health insurer Horizon Health Services, an original customer of the Prometheus Payment system, recently implemented SAS' new product in its organization.

“SAS for ECR Analytics helps us improve quality outcomes, increase patient satisfaction and reduce costs,” Michael Occhipinti, director of informatics at Horizon Healthcare Services, said in a statement. “The significant variations in provider costs and clinical patterns complicate contract negotiations and quality measurement. With SAS, we can fully integrate surgeons and other health care professionals into all levels of care, creating possibilities for cost containment and quality improvement.”